The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-11-30


is tied so that the weight of my body
when it bears on the fastenings breaks
them loose. and the parachute is free
of the balloon. That / have to let go,
and two or three times I have nearly
lost it, and the poor old thing shows
the wounds it has received where it is
patched up. But it is trusty old
ship, though / mean to get new one
for next season."
swell, tell me just how you make
your arrangements.
IL get good hold of the iron ring.
That is pretty important, you can bet.
It isn't easy to make any change on the
way down, and If you let go, why,
then You won't make any more jumps,
that is all. But L am not afraid of
los ng my hold because have not good
cough grip. My hands are pretty
strong, and / can hold on well enough.
The dangerous part of this holding on
is that my arms get strained so through
the wrenching they get from the sway
ing motion, the oscillations. that some
times the strain is very great and they
become completely exhausted. After
/ have gripped on to the ring, / get
carefully over the rim of the basket,
and then drop There is no need to
spring out. 1t is not so good, because
the straighter down one goes the
easier it is for the parachute to fill out
and be sustained by the air"
"What are your sensations on the
way DOWN."
"rhe first hundred feet are the worst.
The parachute does not fill at once, and
so it is like falling sheer through that
much space. And that is another rea-
son why the drop has to be made lit
tie carefully; otherwise 1 might get
turned over, and though, of course, if
1 hold on, twill come all right, but the
wrench on my arms would be violent,
and the thing would shake more. 1t
shakes quite enough now, assure you,
although have improved little on it
in that respect. You can fancy what a
fall of a hundred feet might be, though
it is pretty hard to imagine it if you
have never been through the thing.
The sensation is not altogether pleas
ant. 1t is giddy sinking through the
air. The condensation of the atmo-
sphere under the parachute, which is
shaped like an umbrella, to catch the
air moro readily, brings me up sud-
denly 1t is almost like jerk, and to
people looking at me l seem to stop for
a moment After that the descent is
more gradual, though it is quite fast
enough for ordinary purposes. The
rate of descent is about 1000 feet a
minute. have given the point of re-
sistance which the parachute offers with
a certain weight and when it is of q
certain diameter a good deal of study.
The sensation is pleasant enough in
summer. Floating down through the
air in that way is cool. 1t is something
like coming down rapidly running
elevator. But your legs are free, and
you feel your body with nothing
around it.
"Ihe oscillations begin, however,
and ON swayed from side to side like
a pendulum. Sometimes / have been
swung out at an angle of fifty or sixty
degrees. The toppart of the parachute,
the umbrella part, does not sway in
this manner. If it fills out all right
there is nothing to fear there. But
sometimes it does not, and then mat
tiers are ticklish"
How do you land-lightly, or is it
hard to escape getting bruised?"
Generally, have landed without
doing myself any harm. When 1 see
l am within six or seven feet of the
ground L drop. can land pretty we'll
on my toes, and if feel momentum
which would be likely to throw me
violently down, L try to fall on my
right side, and sometimes turn three
or four somersaults. This breaks the
force. OF course, / can exercise no
control over myself while l am in the
air. i have to land wherever chance
brings me. If it is good height from
which l drop, and there is strong
wind, l can easily come down at a
place mile or more from the place on
the earth underneath the spot jumped
from. / am carried by the wind so that
/ do Tot feel it blowing on me very
much. When / make an ascension near
the water, like that at Rockaway Beach
this summer, take up life preserver
with me, so ii 1 fall into the water at
too great distance from the shore to
swim, l need not drown"
"Do you feel any nervousness or fear
in undertaking the feat?"
81 always know that there is danger
in it. L couldn't know as much about
the subject as / do and be ignorant of
that. But do not feel much trepida-
tion in undertaking it. The chances
are that everything will come out all
right, as they have done in all my de-
scents. Then there is an excitement
about it. 1t is a funny thing, though,
to be performing feat for an audi
ence so far below you that you cannot
see anything but dark spot on the
earth. When you get up so very high
in balloon do not think that a per-
son IS as inclined to feel dizzy as at q
much less height from which he can
compare the relative attitudes. But 1
am not subject to dizziness. It doesn't
60 well with balloonists, and, besides,
my training as a circus man has got me